in the six quarters before 2003, the economy lost six million jobs. in the quarter after, the economic growth nearly doubled and 2.3 million jobs were added. some tax advocates may assert a willingness to accept lower economic growth in the cause of deficit reduction and that's a legitimate point of view. that we need to have slower economic growth because deficit reduction is so important. but i would also just point out some statistics there. slow growth also means less tax revenue. the white house's own data suggests that even a .26% reduction in economic growth, so .26% reduction in economic growth, which is likely with big tax hikes, would wipe out the entire $800 billion in promised deficit reduction from higher tax rates. growth is so incredibly important to reducing our debt and deficit and getting control of our fiscal situation. so tax rate increases are not only bad economic policy, they tend to be bad budget policy. now, tax reform is needed, and through tax reform, we could have higher revenues, but both theory and practice make a convinc